Experts reveal the horrifying reasons you should stay away from the ‘Snake diet’

Obesity is a big problem that America is having to deal with on many levels. The solution is far from just a "stop eating so much and you won't be fat" one-stop shop; it's a problem the food industry, schools, healthcare and many others must confront in order to deal with the problem.

Something that almost always never works in tackling the problem is fad diets. The latest insane weight loss trend is definitely something you should not try. The "Snake diet".

Little side note - I played this for 15 minutes and completely forgot I was meant to be working (Google 'snake' and it should be the first result). I managed to spin to my manager that the snake eating the apple was essential to the article.

Snake obesity isn’t really a problem. If you’ve ever noticed that all of the slithery creatures are pretty thin, you might’ve thought about whether eating like a snake might help you slim down too. Canadian personal trainer Cole Robinson argues a case for the diet.

Robinson also claims the Snake Diet will “challenge everything you thought you knew about food and the limits of the human body.” That might very well be true. The Snake Diet is a fasting diet that encourages humans to adopt the natural eating tendencies of snakes. That means you gorge on one large meal a day consisting mostly of fat and protein. Then, you don’t eat again for at least 22 hours.

To get started, you need to do some sort of special, 48-hour fast where the only thing you consume is something called Snake Juice. This is Robinson’s DIY concoction of one litre of water, two teaspoons of pink salt, and two teaspoons of NoSalt, a salt replacement product. Whether snakes drink this in the wild has yet to be documented.

Sipping this salty liquid will probably make you want to puke, but according to Robinson, it’s essential for clearing out toxins, crushing sugar addictions, and transforming your body into a fat-burning machine so you start losing weight ASAP.

How much weight? You're starving yourself for 22 hours every day, so probably a lot. Specifically, though, one devotee claims to have lost five kilograms (about 11 pounds) in four days, even curing her diabetes. Not convinced? You're right not to be.

You might instinctively sense that eating like a snake for any extended period of time might not be sustainable, let alone good for you. But, just in case that wasn’t quite obvious, I'm going to spell it out: The Snake Diet is a truly terrible idea.

Eliza Savage, an NTC based registered dietitian, says: “It’s not built on solid science, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.” Fasting for 22 hours a day will likely leave you feeling pretty crappy with virtually no energy. Of course, you’ll probably lose some weight, but when you eventually cave and go back to eating like a human, any pounds that did come off will pile right back on. Alissa Ramsey, another dietitian says that, like any other crash diet, by eating so little, “your body will respond with cravings and eventually, you’ll overeat."

Let's not forget about the snake juice either. It contains a whopping 4,000 mg sodium—nearly double the amount you should be consuming in a day. That could exacerbate health problems like high blood pressure or pre-existing kidney issues. And, even after all of that, if you’re in great shape, you’ll still feel really, really thirsty. Stick to intermittent fasting or, you know, eating like a human?